I probably throw in a dozen sticks split to 6" diameter and 44" long every 45 minutes.

I've heard the argument for/against wood burning units both ways - sell the wood you cut from the bush doing cleanup, thinning etc... and use that to pay your oil bill. I'd rather not cut that wood as small and not split it as fine and burn it myself. There's also the argument that wood is carbon neutral compared to oil. When oil was $120/barrell a LOT more people were going wood.

Yes wood burning takes more time than oil to cut, split and load into the evaporator. Wood burning also tends to make darker syrup because of the inconsistent firebox temperatures.

Personally - I'm happy with wood burning but it's all I've ever used. Now that we are concentrating sap over 15 Brix the boils are so short that loading the firebox 6-8 times over a 4 or 5 hour boil is no big deal.

The new Force 5's have a lot of bells and whistles you can get that weren't available when we bought ours in 2009 - we bought the first unit in Ontario. I understand the new units allow you to set a desired firebox temperature and the blowers adjust automatically and then it tells you when to reload. That takes all the feel out of boiling on a wood rig!